HEAS Head Tom Higham et al. publishes on Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
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Rapa Nui (Easter Island) with its gigantic statues and treeless landscape has fascinated researchers for centuries. A new genetic study published in this week’s Nature disproves the popular theory that the Rapanui population collapsed as a result of an “ecocide”—a human-caused environmental suicide—and shows that the Rapanui admixed with Indigenous Americans centuries before Europeans arrived on the island.
Ancient Rapanui genomes reveal resilience and pre-European contact with the Americas.
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